September 29, 2005
Workshops highlight survey findings
Four Involvement Workshops were held with campus leadership groups to discuss the preliminary findings of the survey conducted by the Leadership, Community and Values Initiative.
The final survey results will be summarized in a University Week insert Oct. 13 and will also be available in greater detail on the Web.
The Sept. 12 workshop involved department chairs and on Sept. 13 it involved administrative leaders. Departmental administrators participated in discussions on Sept. 16. The University’s senior leadership — deans, chancellors and the leadership of the medical centers — participated Sept. 28. The purpose of the workshops was to help identify key issues and to discuss how the survey results can influence University policies regarding leadership.
The first three groups were invited to react to the preliminary findings, to find places where the findings resonated or conflicted with their experience, and to suggest what additional analysis of the data would be useful. The groups also were asked to suggest action steps the institution might take to address some of the issues that were raised. These action steps were summarized for presentation to senior University leadership.
Additional presentations to other campus groups also have occurred, and more are being scheduled.
President Emmert and Provost Wise connected the initiative team’s work to broader campus goals.
“In my brief time here, I have learned that this is a wonderful place. But we can make it even better,” Provost Wise said.
“We can take the strengths of our people, and bring them together in a way that is more than the sum of individual effort. If we don’t take the time to think about how we can inspire people to excellence, we are missing the boat. This initiative is about more than just leadership. It’s about what defines us as a community. We are all leaders in some sense. Our goal is to more clearly define and articulate the principles that guide our actions.”
President Emmert said, “This initiative will help us identify the challenges we need to face as we move this University forward. The analysis of the survey will be followed by clear action steps that help make the university more successful.”
In commenting on the preliminary findings, Emmert noted that “We need to focus more on the common values that unite us, on the good things that we all do. This University has transformative impacts on students and on society. This is true for both our educational mission and for scholarship. And it’s true for all the people who work here; we all have some responsibility for transforming lives.
“But to do this, we rely on the quality of the people who work here, on their talents and skills, on the working environment and institutional culture. Higher education historically has often done a poor job developing the talents and abilities of its own people — we rarely apply to ourselves the kind of thought that goes into developing the abilities of our students. Leadership in academia is not usually seen as a noble cause.
“The challenge posed by this initiative is how we can all become more valuable to one another and to the institution. We must do this by design, so that we begin to shape this institution into the kind of place we want it to be.”
Provost Wise commented, “This is the beginning of a paradigm shift. Our ability to bring forward the best leadership in an optimal environment will differentiate the UW from what it was before, as well as from other universities. If we are able to identify and mentor the leaders among us, at all levels, we will work even better together.”
